


like a planet circles the sun

by red_streaks



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: College AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 09:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14399328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/red_streaks/pseuds/red_streaks
Summary: “What do you say, Pippa?” Anastasia leans forward, eyes crinkling as she smiles. “Partners?”I’d sooner marry a toad, Pippa wants to say. She’d also like to wipe Anastasia’s stupid smile right off her face with a good splash of lavender tea, but, she thinks bitterly, she didn’t have the time to buy it.“Actually,” she stands up and takes pleasure in the way Anastasia startles back to give her room. “I’ve already partnered up with Hecate Hardbroom.”She turns on her heel and stomps down the steps to the first row, makes a show out of taking long, sure strides towards the lonely witch and dares them all to say something – anything.“Hello, my name’s Pippa Pentangle and I’m your partner now,” she stops in front of the girl and rather aggressively drops her books on the table. Three pens jostle out of their position.***or, pippa pentangle is aggressively friendly to a friendless hecate. college au.





	like a planet circles the sun

**Author's Note:**

> hello this is me cleaning out my drafts because i need to stop hoarding my fics on my laptop. a short little thing about pippa's big heart and her inability to stay away from pretty girls
> 
> a big huge thanks to morgan han and laila for helping me with this!

It starts like this.

Seven in the a.m., and she’s lost her favorite pink ribbon.

It makes her ten minutes late, which means she doesn’t have the time to stop for tea before class, which means she has to walk briskly across campus and through the classroom door just forty seconds before the bell rings.

And if she hadn’t insisted on kneeling on all fours and scrummaging through the endless trinkets underneath her bed for the blasted ribbon, and if she hadn’t insisted on using an ironing spell when she’d finally tugged it free from between shoes and empty chocolate boxes, well – if she hadn’t done all that, the rest wouldn’t have aligned quite so perfectly.

(Pippa, stepping into the classroom, breathless and insanely proud of how high her ponytail bounces in synch with her ribbon.

A lone witch with raven hair falling over her shoulder stares intensely at her notes. A mischievous pen, jostled by the aggressive turn of a page, rolling off the table at an unusual speed.

A pink shoe, stepping hurriedly in front of the desk. A clatter, a glance and –)

“Oh,” Pippa breathes. “You’ve dropped your pen.” She bends down to pick it up and smiles as she extends her hand out to its owner, whose head is slowly emerging from behind her book, painfully slow as if she isn’t sure she’s being talked to.

“What?” A soft whisper, but strong, heavily-lined eyes appear over the top of the book. Large and bright.

“Your pen,” Pippa says again, wiggles the object in the air to get the girl’s attention. “You’ve dropped it, see?”

The girl’s eyes meet Pippa’s, widen slightly, and then quickly look towards the pen still in her hand. Waiting to be taken back. Pippa wiggles it again.

“Oh, yes – that’s…that is my pen.” She says, like she’s surprised that she missed it falling, like it’s somehow betrayed her by resting on Pippa’s hand instead of her desk where two other pens are lined up neatly.

The bell rings.

“T-thank you,” the girl says and doesn’t bother to use her hand, opting instead to levitate the pen right out of Pippa’s startled hands. It lands lightly on the table and Pippa watches with amusement as the girl uses one long finger to align it to the rest of the pens, vertical and perfect and straight.

“Sure thing,” Pippa smiles brightly, isn’t deterred one bit by the teacher clearing her throat behind her, or the fact that the girl’s face is half-hidden behind her book.

She turns and flips her ponytail behind her, pleased that she can feel the girl’s eyes on her and sits at her table. Three other witches flutter beside her and she easily falls into conversation with them until class begins.

And if she twirls her ribbon between her fingers during the lecture, eyes cutting across the room to find a dark head of hair sitting alone, well – it was a rather interesting looking pen, that’s all.

*

A quick sugar fix is all Pippa needs to start her day.

Just one bite of a frosted donut and she can continue reading about the Great Fae Revolution of 1525 without having her eyes cross over from exhaustion. But she’s already running late to class and she knows the teachers like to congregate around the campus café and will absolutely judge her if she buys a pastry seven minutes before she’s supposed to be across campus.

Quite brilliantly, if Pippa were the kind of person who toots her own horn, she casts an invisibility spell and waits until somebody exits the café to enter.

There’s no line when she finally makes it through the endless amounts of students and books and tables, and she’s about to whisper madly to the cashier for a pink donut when she spots a familiar group of witches making their way to a little counter used to prepare drinks.

“—partner up with Pippa, and you’ll surely get a high mark on the project.” Anastasia’s voice rings out, and Pippa stops in her tracks at the sound of her name. “She’s such a perfectionist, you know. You probably won’t even have to do half the work.”

Pippa frowns, double checks that Anastasia, her  _ friend _ , is actually the one speaking. She’s startled to find that it  _ is _ .  

“Won’t she want to pair up with the top student in class? That girl, the odd one that never speaks? What’s her name?” Munice says in that little habit she has, always lilting her tone at the end of a sentence so it sounds as if she’s asking a question. Anastasia reaches for the milk container.

“Hecate,” a third voice says, and Pippa pushes someone slightly out of her way as she follows them out. Nadia snaps her fingers. “That’s her name. The one that sits alone at the front of the class.”

“Pippa, pair up with Hecate Hardbroom?” Anastasia laughs. “Please. The girl is  _ bats _ ! The only friends she has are the professors and I hear she never leaves her dormitory.”

“She’s  _ repressed _ ,” Nadia says, and Munice nods. “Pippa would never be seen with a girl like that.”

Pippa feels annoyance flare up somewhere in her chest, and she wouldn’t be surprised if her face were flushed red.

“You two can partner up,” Anastasia sniffs and puts the lid back on her cup. “And I’ll ask Pippa if she wants to work with me.”

The trio walks out of the café and Pippa forgets about the pastry and lavender tea she was debating on. She walks straight out of the café, lifts her invisibility spell and walks briskly to her class, ponytail bouncing aggressively as she stomps.

When she enters the classroom, Professor Nightingale is just explaining the end of term project they’ll have to pair up for. She gives Pippa a disappointed look as she walks past the first row to get to her usual seat but Pippa ignores her in favor of stealing a glance at the girl,  _ Hecate _ , and finds her bent over her notebook, writing rapidly.

She sits next to Anastasia, gives her a sickeningly sweet smile, and doesn’t bother putting her books down.

“Pairs of two, please. You may choose your own partner, just this once,” Professor Nightingale finally says, and Pippa turns expectedly to Anastasia, an easy and open smile upon her lips that feels unnatural.

People begin shuffling around as they pair off, and Munice and Nadia open their notebooks at the exact same time.

“What do you say, Pippa?” Anastasia leans forward, eyes crinkling as she smiles. “Partners?”

_ I’d sooner marry a toad, _ Pippa wants to say. She’d also like to wipe Anastasia’s stupid smile right off her face with a good splash of lavender tea, but, she thinks bitterly, she didn’t have the time to buy it.

“Actually,” she stands up and takes pleasure in the way Anastasia startles back to give her room. “I’ve already partnered up with Hecate Hardbroom.”

She turns on her heel and stomps down the steps to the first row, makes a show out of taking long, sure strides towards the lonely witch and dares them all to say something –  _ anything _ .

“Hello, my name’s Pippa Pentangle and I’m your partner now,” she stops in front of the girl and rather aggressively drops her books on the table. Three pens jostle out of their position.

She places her hands on her hips and waits for a reply that doesn’t come, because the other girl -  _ Hecate,  _ her mind supplies _ , her name is Hecate _ \- is startled enough to have dropped her own book from her hands and is looking at her with abnormally large eyes.

“That is,” Pippa backtracks, and just barely stops herself from wringing her hands. “Do you have a partner?”

“No,” Hecate says, frowns slightly and shifts uncomfortably in her chair. Her hair is up today, Pippa notices. She has a ponytail tied with a black ribbon, almost indistinguishable from her black hair and it falls in long, long waves over her back.

“Do you want to be partners, then?” Pippa says, places her hands over the desk and peers down at Hecate with her friendliest smile.

Hecate frowns deeper. “Is this a joke?” Her voice turns sharp and Pippa blinks, smile falling off her face.

“N-no!” She says, and hears somebody snicker behind her. She doesn’t have to turn around to know its Anastasia. Pippa thinks about how the class stayed clear of Hecate’s path when the Professor asked them to pair off, how nobody had even thought about approaching her. Pippa thinks about the way Hecate hadn’t bothered to look around the room for a partner, and tones down the smile she usually always uses to win someone over.

“I just think we’d make great partners, Hecate Hardbroom, that’s all.”

Hecate’s face goes slack and her mouth falls open slightly. She closes and opens it thrice more before her face goes a little red.

Pippa smiles a little wider, quite enjoys the way Hecate’s name rolls off her tongue and the pink that tinges the other girl’s cheeks when she says it. She wants to say her name again, slower this time, if only to memorize the way the girl’s eyes widen and her shoulders hunch –  _ seen,  _ Pippa’s mind supplies.

_ Good _ , she thinks.  _ This girl deserves to be seen. _

“Oh,” Hecate finally settles on, and breaks eye contact to awkwardly move her books and pens to the side, giving Pippa room to place her own bag.

Pippa sits, flicks her ponytail to the side and faces Hecate, who is looking at her from the corner of her eye.

“Partners, then?” She drums her nails over the table and tries not to look so excited as she drinks in Hecate, who she is now closer to than she’s ever been before. Hecate has brown eyes lined with short, stubby eyelashes, and she has a slight dimple on her right cheek when she chews on her lip. 

“Partners,” Hecate says rather hesitantly, but offers Pippa one of her three pens when she opens up her notebook.

“Now, then,” Pippa says happily. “What was the project on, again?”

And laughs at the look of absolute disbelief on Hecate’s face.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! <3


End file.
